My Thoughts on the Recent Election

If you don't already know, the UK held a General Election on Thursday. The results surprised a lot of people, including myself. To start off if you aren't that aware of British politics, here's a rundown:
- Conservative Party, led by Theresa May. Before the election was the ruling party and has been for a while (therefore May was the Prime Minister) and is roughly equivalent to the right-wing US Republican Party.
- Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn. Roughly equivalent to the left-wing US Democratic Party.
- Liberal Democrats, led by Tim Farron. Supposedly neither left nor right-wing.
- Green Party, led by Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley. Mainly focussed on improving the environment. Always win in Brighton and nowhere else.
- UK Independence Party (UKIP), led by Paul Nuttall. Very right-wing, and often called racist/islamophobic.
- Scottish National Party (SNP), led by Nicola Sturgeon. Campaign for Scottish independence (even though they already had a referendum in which the public voted to stay in Britain) and generally only win seats in Scotland.
- Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), led by Arlene Foster. I'd never heard of them until recently, but apparently they're from Northern Ireland and their right-wing policies seem to be only focussed on NI.
- Sinn Féin, led by Gerry Adams. An 'Irish republican' political party, whatever that means. Main policy is to have a united independent Ireland (mainland + Northern Ireland) and never take their seats in Westminster as they don't acknowledge it. (Thank you Jemima for your Sinn Féin expertise!)
- There are other small parties but these are the main few, and the ones I'll be discussing in this post.
The UK governmental system is, in a nutshell: a party must win at least 326 seats (Members of Parliament [MPs]) in an election to get a majority, and then they govern the country. Their leader becomes Prime Minister (PM) and they can make the laws and essentially do whatever they want. If, however, no party gets the majority (which is called a Hung Parliament), then they can choose to form a coalition, where there is dual authority in Parliament. For example, in 2010 the Conservatives had 306 seats, not enough for a majority. The Liberal Democrats had 57 seats, so when the two parties combined, they had 363 seats overall, more than the 326 majority. Therefore, the leaders (David Cameron and Nick Clegg, respectively) became PM and Deputy PM.


I align myself most closely with the Labour Party, so I'll tell you now this is probably a biased account of this year's election, but it is my opinion after all. Actually, I align most with the Green Party, but as they're so tiny they'll never win, so Labour is my closest large party. This election was a huge surprise, and here's why:

1. The turnout for young people was off the charts. Having previously been criticised for being 'lazy', 'apathetic', and not caring about their futures, young people really stepped up their game this year, which will hopefully spark changes/additions in the manifestos of many parties to appeal more to the younger generation too. 
2. The Labour Party gained masses of votes. Corbyn had been campaigning like mad and targeting young people, which probably explains the huge increase in young voters. In the 2010 election, they had 29% of the votes, in the 2015 election 30%, and in the most recent election a whopping 40%. That is a likely unseen increase, which is a huge deal for every single party, as well as the country.
3. We don't really know what's going to happen next. The Conservatives 'won' the election (meaning they have the most MPs) with 318 seats, but that isn't enough for a majority. Therefore, we currently have a Hung Parliament (like I explained earlier). 
4. The Conservatives seem to be buddying up with the DUP, which is angering a lot of people. The DUP has some not PC views and had been called far-right, extremist, and populist. They are very anti-abortion, oppose gay marriage, and campaigned publicly against the legalisation of 'homosexual acts' in Northern Ireland in 1977 (for context, 'homosexual acts' were legalised in Britain in 1969).
5. Theresa May has been lying a lot recently. She firstly said that there was no way she would call a snap election, and what did she do? Well, there wouldn't be this post if she hadn't called that snap election. More recently, she said that should her Conservative Party lose 6 seats in this election, she would step down as leader. They have in fact lost 12 seats, and has she stepped down? No way. Also just to dig the knife in deeper, her main campaign against Jeremy Corbyn (and by extension the entire Labour Party) was calling him a 'terrorist sympathiser'. Is her getting all close with the DUP not terrorist sympathising? The British public seem to be at their wits' end with Theresa May, and I'm exactly the same.
6. On a lighter note, this is the most diverse Parliament in British history. !!!!! We now have 45 LGBT MPs (19 of which are Conservative, which surprised me), 52 ethnic minority MPs (who are still staggeringly under-represented, with 598 MPs being white), 208 female MPs (which is so cool when you think about how just over 100 years ago Emily Davison died for women to have the vote, let alone to be in Parliament), and the most disabled representation ever. No matter what it looks like from afar, I promise Parliament is progressing. I hope.

I Am... 17! (and other big news)

So today, I turned the ripe old age of 17! And as it's Wednesday, I decided to incorporate this special (well at least it's special for me) day into the series! Before I begin, I'd just like to thank Jemima for the inspiration for this post, which she titled Me At 17. Also, I'd like to wish my friend (and birthday twin) Anna a very happy birthday, again! Without further ado, on with I Am... 17!

So, who am I at seventeen?

Well, book-wise I still love my classics - Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, the Maze Runner, Cat Patrick, Jay Asher, and John Green to name but a few. However, I've also become a lot more interested in poetry. I really love Walt Whitman, Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, and Erin Hanson. I've also started writing a lot more poetry, as you can see from this blog! Clearly, I started a blog too, which has made it much more simple for me to lay out my points of view and organise my thoughts.
Film-wise I'm again still loving the classics, but have become more interested in older films and other genres, mainly thanks to my friends and my Film class. I've also tried to make my first short film; Warning Sign. Furthermore, I'm very excited to see the next instalment of the Harry Potter franchise: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which is out in the UK on November 18th, and the Miss Saigon 25th anniversary show, which will hopefully be as good as it's Les Miserables counterpart!
In general, I've changed a heck of a lot. I consider myself a Christian (for roughly 9 months now), a vegan (for a year and five months!), a feminist, a Labour supporter, a humanitarian, a Democrat (if I was American), and much more open to others' views, opinions, and prejudices (as a reminder, my aim is always to educate and increase love and tolerance, never to slander or make others feel like their views are unimportant). I've become much more politically educated, aware, and active, and feel more connected to both my local society and the world, as well as everything in between. I'm hoping that this interest will carry on, as I believe it's absolutely imperative to take responsibility for your country, and humans as a whole.

That's why I'm going to somewhat hijack this post, as today a decision was made that will affect the world; Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States. I honestly can't believe those words are coming out of my mouth (or at least from my fingers). I'm still kind of coming to terms with it, but that doesn't mean that we can't be ready for anything, and be hopeful for the future. Although I may not have wanted him to have access to the power he will soon yield, I still must accept him as the leader of the free world, and pray that his decisions won't harm too many people too badly.
If you're an American reading this, especially if you're a minority, please do not be afraid. America is still your country, you are still a human being, you still have your rights. Mr. Trump cannot and will not take that away from you, we will not let him. But I'll be completely honest with you; I am worried for everyone in America who is not white, or straight, or a Christian, or a man, or American-born, or is for some other reason on Mr. Trump's hitlist, if you can call it such.
Muslim women, to you I quote a tweet: if you feel the need to not wear your hijab for safety, Allah will understand and forgive you. Please don't put yourself in danger for reasons that could be avoided. Then again, please don't be afraid of expressing yourself and your religion. I'm not afraid of wearing a cross, so you shouldn't have to be afraid of wearing a hijab, or a niqab, or a burkha.
The LGBT+ community, stay strong. Pence will not break you. He cannot 'fix' you because you are not broken. Conversion therapy is not therapy at all, it is torture. Be safe, and hold on to who you truly are. Your real friends and family will accept you for who you are, even if that's not who they want you to be.
Women, and young girls especially, you can do whatever a man can do. You must reach for the moon, reach just as high as men. Your simple anatomy does not define your limitations, your attitude and mindset does. Please, do not be discouraged from dreaming big. Dream bigger than you ever have before, and encourage both your female and male friends to do the same. We cannot be equal if we do not first truly believe we are equal.
POC, we stand with you. History will not be allowed to repeat itself. Our differences make us who we are, and that is never a bad thing, until we start using our differences to hurt one another. Your skin colour does not define your worth. Neither does your gender. Nor your sexuality. Nor your religion. Your actions do.
Please, act right.

From a straight white Christian, we are not all the same.

I detest making my political view so apparent and admittedly biased, but I have tried to see the good in Mr. Trump, and I have come up empty-handed.

Please be safe and trust yourself and your fellow countrymen. We can make this work as an Earth, together.